By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org
After finishing the regular season with a four-game losing streak which dropped their season record to 11-9 and left them tied for third in the OK-Conference Red at 6-6, the East Kentwood High School boys basketball team has become the classic “survive and advance” tournament team this season.
After winning three tough games in the district tournament, then grinding out two two very tough wins in the Division 1 Regional 3 tournament at Holland West Ottawa last week — defeating Muskegon, 68-62, and then Hudsonville, 61-60 — the Falcons (now 16-9 on the season) will play in the MHSAA state Division 1 quarterfinals, a neutral-site game to be played at Caledonia High School Tuesday, March 12, at 7 p.m.
Incidentally, the regional final win over Hudsonville gave East Kentwood head coach Jeff Anama 220 wins as the team’s head coach, passing Mickey Phelps in the program’s record books.
East Kentwood’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Okemos (22-2, and winner of the Capital Area Activities Conference-Blue), with the winner moving on to the Breslin Center at Michigan State University for the state semifinals on Friday, March 15, at 2 p.m., and, possibly, the finals on Saturday, March 16 at 12:15 p.m.
This will be the Falcons first quarterfinal appearance since 1998 and the first time they have advanced past district play in eight years.
East Kentwood’s playoff tournament run is all the more impressive, as head coach Jeff Anama pointed out in supplied information to WKTV, because “We have beaten three teams on our run that we lost to during the regular season … East Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Hudsonville — twice.”
The Falcon team is captained by senior guard Ryel Daye and 6-foot-4 senior forward Chris Brown, as well as junior guard Ja’moni Jones — who is the team’s leading scorer, with about 22-points-per-game in the regular season. The other routine starters for East Kentwood are 6-3 junior forward Jordan Jackson and 6-5 junior center Urim Sahitolli. The top reserves are 6-1 sophomore center Drapher Cribbs and junior guard Adonis Vashon.
While Jones has been the most consistent scorer for East Kentwood, coach Anama pointed out in supplied information that “four players have scored over 20 points in a game this year” — Jones, Daye, Brown and Jackson, while Sahitolli had a season high of 15 points.
Other players on the Falcons postseason roster include: sophomore guard Kellan Roelofs, sophomore guard Josh Mayhue, sophomore guard Kamarion Harris, junior forward Anthony Brown, junior guard Prince Shema, sophomore Jacari Barnes and junior forward Sean-Anthony Diggs.
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